In 1626, the Dutch West Indies Trading Co. bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians, paying with goods worth about $24.

In 1844, the first U.S telegraph line was formally opened between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan Island.

In 1935, the first night baseball game in the major leagues saw the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

In 1962, Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times.

In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled private religious schools that practice racial discrimination are not eligible for church-related tax benefits.

In 1987, 250,000 people jammed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on its 50th anniversary -- temporarily flattening the arched span.

In 1990, the Navy reopened the much-criticized probe of the USS Iowa explosion that killed 47 sailors, citing a test that showed the blast could have been an accident.

In 1991, Israel began a mass evacuation of 14,500 Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. The operation took 36 hours.

In 1993, the Senate approved the appointment of Roberta Achtenberg as assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity in the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. She was the first openly homosexual person to be appointed to a position requiring Senate approval.

Also in 1993, the archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, was shot to death at Guadalajara's airport when his car was caught in a shootout between rival drug cartels.

A thought for the day: Lao-Tzu said, "A thousand-mile journey begins with a single step."

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